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To the Editor:
To Landmarks Preservation people
the word façade is not pejorative; the
façade of a building, the face it shows
the public, is part of the character of a
neighborhood.
The grand old building at 67 Vestry,
mostly populated by artists and now
threatened by the developer’s axe, is
part of the façade of New York. To the
hundreds of thousands of people who
move along the Hudson—on foot, by
bike, by ships large and small—little
remains of the New York of my youth,
let alone the nineteenth century.
Except for 67 Vestry and one or two
others, the visitor sees only a string of
glass-and-steel buildings—a couple of
architectural interest, the rest not at all.
We may as well be in Houston.
But we aren’t in Houston. We’ve
chosen to live in New York because we
understood it to be a place that values
beauty, culture and history. The city
could go a long way toward proving
that by saving 67 Vestry.
John Jiler

Credit correction

COPY EDITOR
J ESSICA R AIMI
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HOWARD IRES

An article in the May, 2013, issue of the
Trib that recalled Battery Park City when it
was “the beach” misidentified the photographer of the above photo. It was taken by
Howard Ires.

Anthony Camera, a former
Tribeca resident who flew pigeons
from a roof in Brooklyn, was featured in the Trib in November, 2002.
To the Editor:
April Koral wrote a terrific feature on my wife’s uncle 12 years
ago. Just wanted to let you know
that Anthony Camera passed away
on March 11 at the age of 93. April
captured his kindness, humor and
simplicity in this piece, for which
we are grateful. Anthony lived in
Tribeca up until a few years ago,
moving to Delaware to be close to
his nephew due to failing health.
Your article was framed and in his
room when he passed.
Rick Gillespie

Too many parking spaces
taken over by gov’t workers

To the Editor:
Over the past few years almost all
parking spaces in Tribeca and FiDi
between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. from
Monday to Friday have been taken over
by government employees. Hundreds
of vehicles park on our streets bearing
plastic notices placed on the dashboards
saying such things as: Official Business
Office of the Comptroller, Official Business Office of the Attorney General,
Federal Enforcement: This Vehicle Is
on Official Business, Administration for
Children’s Services, and many others.
I realize that the government
employees are more important than the
rest of us and I fully understand that
they should be permitted to park here
while we cannot. I understand that city
employees should not be forced to take
public transportation. They deserve to
commute by car and park for free in our
neighborhood while the rest of us take
public transportation. I do not own a
car, almost never take a taxi, and manage to get around New York quite rapidly. Why can’t they take public transport? Within three blocks of City Hall
are 11 subway lines! There are also
many buses.

These privileged parking permit
holders even park on Broadway next to
City Hall, taking away a lane in the
most congested part of Broadway
where an extra lane on the east side of
Broadway for traffic turning left onto
the Brooklyn Bridge would be very
helpful.
All these privileged government
employees not only cause a lot of congestion, they also add to our air pollution.
Much of the time the spaces
reserved for loading and unloading
trucks are used by government employees with these special parking privileges. This interferes with local business.
I recommend that Mayor de Blasio
take away most of these special parking
privileges, insist that his city employees
take public transportation like the rest
of us, have the police ticket cars with
expired permits or parked in zones
reserved for trucks loading and unloading, eliminate all parking for everyone
on Broadway between Chambers and
Vesey Street—and provide more parking spaces for local residents.
Gordon Bowling

It took just one small electrical fire on a Saturday
evening late last month to upend the lives of a family,
a fledgling small business and a school.
Extension cords sparked a fire March 22 in a thirdfloor apartment at 72 Warren St., according to Fire
Department spokesman Frank Dwyer. The fire set off
the unit’s sprinkler system and even before firemen
arrived, water was pouring into the spaces below.
Water gushed for hours into the second-floor loft
where Katherine Hill and Marco Moretti have lived
and worked for 20 years. The destructive downpour
continued into the mezzanine administrative offices of
the Church Street School for Music & Art, and then
onto the ground floor where Val Chen had only recently opened Stitched Tribeca, her crafts store, workspace and gallery.

DAVID KELLEY

On the night of the fire and flood, water can be seen on the outside of 72 Warren St., coming from the third floor.

Family Loses Both a Home
And a Business, All at Once

Dwyer, the FDNY spokesman, described thirdfloor apartment 3E, where the fire began, as a
“Collyers’ Mansion,” a reference to the home of the
famed hoarding brothers in the 1940s. It is a term that
firefighters use to describe a dwelling so packed with
clutter that it is a danger to the occupants and emergency responders. The tenant of the apartment, Tom
Brigham, could not be reached for comment.
Asked about the fire and flooding, Charles Karp,
the building manager of 72 Warren, replied, “I only
have one thing to say to you. The cause is under
investigation and we had some water damage and the
insurance companies are working out who’s going to
pay for what.”
Following are three stories of loss and uncertain
futures for those struck by the downpour of that
Saturday night.

Marco Moretti was inside the family’s second-floor apartment with his 13year-old son, Lorenzo, that night when, a
little after 8 p.m., they were startled by
what they said sounded like a waterfall.
“When we heard the sound of the water
on the window and on the air conditioner, the first thing that we thought [was]
there was a tempest or something,” Moretti recalled as he stood among the piles
of drenched belongings and work equipment that were stacked everywhere.
Moretti said he then walked to the
front of the loft and found it under about
six inches of water.
Until that night, Moretti and his wife,
Katherine Hill, had been running a communications and branding company,
FDT Design, out of their loft. Now they
and their son are at once homeless and
out of work. Their vagabond status has
led them to spend a few nights in local
hotels and depend on the kindness of
friends to put them up until they can find
temporary housing that they can afford.
The landlord, they say, is planning to
make the apartment liveable again but
that could take at least six months.

Hill said this disaster came on the
heels of already difficult recent years for
the business. “We’re destitute now,” she
said. I don’t know how we’re going to
rebuild.”
The family does not have renter’s
insurance, Hill said, and will likely not
be able to stay in the neighborhood
where they have lived since 1994.
The brown water that poured through
the ceilings and into the apartment damaged about two-thirds of the live/work
loft space, as well as many of the family’s belongings, including the business’s
computers, monitors, printers, shelves of
books, their son’s mattress and even the
family’s shoes. “It’s as if a swimming
pool dropped into our home,” Hill said.
As for work, Hill said, “We’re basically out of business now.” Their son
Lorenzo is living with friends who
opened up their home so he could regain
some sense of normalcy. “He’s traumatized,” Hill said of him. “We are all trying to keep it together.”
The family has started the Hill-Moretti Family Fire Fund at www.gofundme.com/hillfire.

Val Chen, a Battery Park City resident, opened Stitched Tribeca, her crafts
shop and gallery, in the storefront space
at 72 Warren this past October. The new
business, she said, was just starting to
gain momentum in workshops, sewing
classes and summer camp enrollment
when the flooding brought it all to a halt.
When the Trib visited Chen in the
empty storefront a few days after the
fire, she had removed all the soaked textiles and art, thrown out all the destroyed
goods and found herself alone among the
bare walls and shelves of what had been
her new store.
“Honestly, it was like someone slamming the door on my coffin,” said Chen,
who tried hard to salvage as many of her
yarns, fabric and textile samples as possible and, more than anything, the artists’
wares she was retailing on consignment.

All her dampened sewing machines and
any goods she managed to save have
been laid out to dry in her living room.
At least, she said, she was able to salvage
eight rag dolls that a group of girls was
working on. She plans to deliver them to
the children personally.
Chen expects that the ceiling and
walls will have to be replaced, but she
can’t say how long it will take or
whether she will be able to start over.
“Can my store be what I originally envisioned it? I don’t know,” she said. “This
was the time that the business was about
to ramp up.”
The World Trade Art Gallery, 74
Trinity Pl., hosts a Stitched Tribeca
“Knit-Along” on April 5 and April 12
from noon to 3 p.m. Come to knit or just
say hello. For more information, go to
www.stitchedtribeca.com.

A New Store Owner’s Dreams Are Washed Away
CARL GLASSMAN

Katherine Hill, Marco Moretti and son Lorenzo among the stacked remains of their office.

CARL GLASSMAN

Val Chen in what had been her Stitched Tribeca, now cleared of its water-damaged goods.

At Church Street School,
Offices Flooded from Above

5

THE TRIBECA TRIB APRIL 2014

Lisa Ecklund-Flores, co-founder and
director of the Church Street School for
Music & Art, was at home with her husband, Jon Flores, in Tarrytown that evening when the phone rang and they got the
news. They arrived at the school around
10:30 p.m.
“I knew it was water, but I didn’t
know it was going to be pouring down
like Niagara Falls,” she said. “It was devastating to see all of this water falling on
top of our computers, on top of our
desks, on top of our important papers.”
The school, which houses its administrative offices on the mezzanine level
of 72 Warren Street below the HillMoretti apartment and next door to its
main building, was in complete disarray
the week after flood.
As Ecklund-Flores and others
cleaned up and dehumidifiers hummed,
debris lay scattered on desks (including
over much of the paperwork from last
month’s benefit), and computers and
musical instruments had been set out to
dry. An air conditioning unit hung precariously by a single bracket near a gaping hole in the ceiling that revealed the
floor of the family’s loft above. Downstairs, in the performance space, staff
worked at desks in a makeshift office.
Amid the water damage that the

school is still assessing are several guitars, an electric piano, all the phones,
printers, a dozen computers and associated keyboards and monitors.
“I’m really concerned about the
music, because some of those scores are
really expensive, and I’ve got a whole
bookshelf filled with music,” EcklundFlores said.
Even more painfully personal are the
damaged paintings, artwork and other
belongings of Susan Duncan, the
school’s former associate director, who
died of cancer in 2009. “I’ve always kept
her all around me by keeping her stuff all
around me,” Ecklund-Flores said, speaking through the mask that she makes sure
to wear while sorting through the wet
items.
Despite the improvised look of the
temporary office space, classes and performances were running as usual the
week after the flood. “There’s a little bit
of this scrappy do-or-die attitude at
Church Street School that’s got us
through a lot of fixes,” Ecklund-Flores
said.
This month, the Church Street School
will hold fundraising events dedicated to
its recovery. To make a direct donation to
the school’s Office Recovery Fund, go to
www.churchstreetschool.org.

PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

Above: Lisa
Ecklund-Flores
removes valuable
collections of classical compositions
from her office.
“I’m trying to preserve this music by
getting it out of
here,” she said.
“And we’ll see. I
don’t know.”
Left: She points to
the ceiling where
water had poured
through. “This is
ready to go,” she
said.

Pier A’s Coming Mega-Center of Dining, Drinking
Historic Pier A, for decades the victim of neglect
and disrepair, will return to life in June as a mega-eating and drinking complex, including multiple bars,
restaurants, a lounge, a tourist information center and
a gallery of historical photos.
The man in charge of the interior transformation of
this 32,000-square-foot shell of a building is Danny
McDonald, a 48-year-old bar designer and native of
Ireland. Starting life in New York as a 17-year-old bartender, he has gone on to design numerous bars and
restaurants, including Harry’s, Ulysses and Grace, all
owned by the Poulakakos family, the lease holders for
Pier A.
McDonald said he took pains to give the 126-yearold pier a vintage look, from a collection of 170 retrofitted steamship pressure gauges that will glow above
the long first floor to the Gilded Age-style stained glass
above the main lobby. McDonald even helped name the
rooms, most evoking the harbor’s history.
“It’s a delight to stay very close to the story of this
pier,” McDonald said. “All you have to do is re-tell it
and pay it the historical respect that it deserves.”
Trib reporter Amanda Woods toured the unfinished
interior with McDonald, and here is what he says is
coming.
THE GALLERY

FIRST LEVEL

This is the main entrance, one of 10 entrances into
the building. In the floor, a large letter “A,” made of
military steel, is embedded in the concrete floor. The
entrance is lit by hand-made Bevolo glass and steel
lighting fixtures. Historical photos will hang on the
wall.
INFORMATION CENTER

Visitors can get information provided by the

STATEROOM

dining room. He plans to hang 170
antique pressure gauges from the ceiling. The dials of the round gauges,
once belonging to 19th-century
steamships, will be retrofitted to light
up from the inside. (“If it happened to
be St. Patrick’s Day, we might give
them a little bit of green tint.”)
The wooden ceiling will be new
but, like much of the pier’s interior,
will be made to look as old as the pier
itself.
“When you walk in,” McDonald
says, “it’s going to feel like this could
have been here all along.”

OYSTER BAR

Oysters will be served throughout
the Long Hall and shucked and
steamed at five stations of the oyster
bar. At the far west end of this area
are the winding stairs that lead to the clock tower. The
stairs, not legal for their intended use, will become a
glass-enclosed refrigerated “wine tower” three stories
high. “It’s going to be one of a kind,” McDonald says.
CARL GLASSMAN

Pier A is a 126-year-old landmark that had long been in a state of decay. Its
renovation was overseen by the Battery Park City Authority.

Downtown Alliance, with additional material from the
South Street Seaport Museum.
LOBBY TO THE SECOND FLOOR

Elevator and glass staircase take visitors to the second floor, with a glass opening to the staircase.
McDonald calls this section “a tribute to the Gilded
Age—the 1880s and 1890s—with a high level of
stained wood finish and stained glass on the ceiling.”
He says the area is meant to invite people upstairs, to let
them see that Pier A “is not just about downstairs.
There’s also a second level.”
THE LONG HALL

This room is true to its name and, along with the
Oyster Bar at the other end, can hold more than 600
people. McDonald pictures 200 to 300 drinking and eating customers in the informal setting of Pier A’s largest

SECOND LEVEL

THE COMMISSIONER’S ROOM

This room, with its original teak walls, was the setting for Don Corleone’s office in “Godfather II.” “It’s
that kind of place you say to the guy at the door, ‘We’re
going to be three for the parlor,’” says McDonald. The
bar can hold 50 people and opens onto a balcony with a
view of the harbor.

THE FOUR DINING ROOMS

There are four private rooms on this floor—Grace,

INTRODUCING
THE ARMOURY
NEW YORK
The Armoury was established in Hong
Kong in 2010 by Alan See, Ethan
Newton and Mark Cho, born from
our passion for classic styling and
interest in the unique stories behind
well-crafted men’s products. We oﬀer
a rich selection of menswear picked
from around the world, some available
as ready-to-wear and some as custom
orders. It is with great pleasure that
we announce the opening of our ﬁrst
location outside of Hong Kong in
TriBeCa, New York City.

Bar designer Danny McDonald in Pier A’s first floor, next to what will be an oyster bar and
shucking stations. The vast floor can hold more than 600 people.

Patrol, New Yorker and Liberty—each
named with a local historical reference in
mind.
THE GALLEY

This is an open kitchen with three
chef’s tables. McDonald says it’s the
only part of the pier that is designed with
a contemporary rather than historical
look. There is sizable wall space to hang
contemporary art from the Hudson
Valley. “Why not celebrate local artists?”
he asks rhetorically.
THE STATEROOM

Next to the “galley” is a dining room
that will have six tables (including one in
the galley) but can also seat up to 60 people together.

“It becomes one huge dining table
right in the center of the room, which is
great,” McDonald said. “You don’t get to
do that every day.”
THE HARRISON ROOM

This bar will have a big stained glass
window with the letter “A,” a visible feature of the building’s exterior. The room
provides an unusual view up West Street
to 1 World Trade Center.

THIRD LEVEL (Not shown)

“THE LOFT” EVENT SPACE

The third level runs about a third of
the length of the pier building and contains a large room for a wide variety of
special events.

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The Corcoran Group is a licensed real estate broker.
Owned and operated by NRT LLC.
The Corcoran Group is a licensed real estate broker.
All material herein
is intended
for information
purposes only
Owned
and operated
by NRT LLC.
and has been compiled from sources deemed reliable. Though
All materialisherein
is intended
for information
purposes
only
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BY AMANDA WOODS
On the storefront window of her tiny
Harrison Street jewelry store and studio,
Cass Lilien posted a letter last month that
begins, “Dear Thief.”
The letter was a plea to the burglar
who broke into her Tribeca store during
the night of March 13 and stole more

understand how your thoughtless crime
affected me,” she told the burglar. “This
was not a crime against a big insurance
company but an artist and small business
owner.”
Lilien reported to the police that she
left her shop on March 13 around 6:15
p.m. When she returned the next day a
little after noon, she
found that an assortment of jewelry—
including designer
bangle bracelets, a
gold chain with diamonds, a London
topaz ring and a
cameo ring—were
gone.
The glass cabinet
once filled with many
jewelry pieces is now
empty. And 10 necklaces that once hung
around the neck of a
bust were missing.
Jewelry case in Cass Lilien's shop that was emptied by the thief.
But jewelry on the
than $20,000 worth of rings and neck- rest of the shelf was untouched.
laces. “Please do the right thing and
“I don’t think they wanted to spend
return it, no questions asked,” the letter any time in the window,” Lilien said.
reads.
Police interviewed residents in the
Lilien said she penned the note after apartments above her store but said they
a customer saw how upset she was and had no leads.
said the thief probably walks by her shop
Since Lilien posted the letter, many
every day. Writing to the perpetrator passersby have come in, telling her they
would lift her spirits, the customer told are sorry about the burglary.
her.
Meanwhile, she struggles to process
“I did it, and it’s goofy, but it made the loss.
me feel way better,” said Lilien, 48,
“I worked really hard to create a realstanding beside her little workspace in ly special atmosphere and a nice experithe closet-sized shop at 24 Harrison St. ence when you come in here,” she said,
“I don’t know why.”
“and it feels like some of that got taken
“I hope you read this so you can away from me.”

Counterclockwise from below: Thousands of Orthodox Jews fill designated areas for blocks along Water Street, with
elder rabbis seated near the podium at Old Slip; a boy in the crowd on Fulton Street; a son looks to his father during prayers; women pray together on Pearl Street. Women also filled a segregated area on Water Street.

BY NATALIE RUBENS
PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN
ens of thousands of religious
men, women and children flooded into the Financial District and
Seaport last month in prayer and
protest.
Transforming the neighborhood into
a sea of wide-brimmed black hats and
long black coats, the ultra-Orthodox
Jews came to demonstrate against legislation in Israel that would require members of religious communities to be
drafted into Israel’s armed forces.
“We are here to make a strong
scream to God that we want things to
change,” said Moishe Cohen from
Lakewood, NJ.
The gathering was more massive
prayer service than protest, with not a
single slogan-bearing sign seen anywhere among the demonstrators who
jammed onto closed-off Water Street,
from Broad to Fulton.
Those designated areas for the rally
filled to capacity, forcing thousands to
pray along nearby Pearl Street or in
alleyways, women always across the
street from the men. On closed-off
Fulton Street, too, men stood shoulder to
shoulder for blocks. Some perched on
hydrants, others on the climbing equipment in Pearl Street Park.
Rabbis and elders from multiple sects
of the usually fragmented Orthodox Jewish community stood on a platform at
Water Street and Old Slip, their amplified plaintive prayers heard blocks away.
The demonstration echoed a rally
held March 2 in Jerusalem, where an

estimated 300,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews
gathered for mass prayer against a new
conscription law.
The law was later passed, repealing
the longstanding exemption from military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews registered in a seminary, or yeshiva. This
segment of the population makes up
approximately 10 percent of the 8 million Israelis. All other Israeli men are
required to serve three years in the mili-

tary (women two years) from age 18.
“This development is both deeply
dismaying and profoundly shocking, an
affront to the world Jewish community
and to the honor of Hashem’s (God’s)
name,” one of the prayer leaders said at
the conclusion of the service.
One of the marshals, Alexander Rapaport of Brooklyn, said he came to
“share in the anguish with those who feel
intimidated in the Holy Land.”

“This is a protest against Israeli law
that would imprison Jews who want to
study,” added demonstrator Yitz Farkas.
Not everyone, however, was protesting a new conscription law. One man
came out “to pray for the general situation in the Middle East and in America,”
he said, “and get a little help from
above.”
Watch the audio-slide show at
tribecatrib.com.

Serving Tribeca for over 3 decades, has earned Ecco its reputation
as one of the finest Italian eateries in the neighborhood.

305 CHURCH STREET
March 23, 10:50 p.m.
During the night, someone stole a
safe containing $400, a petty cash box
and assorted documents from a basement
office at Los Americanos Restaurant.
When an employee returned the following morning, the office door was wide
open. Police found no signs of forced
entry. Officers discovered an article of
clothing covering a surveillance camera
in the office.
14 WALL STREET
March 19, 6:10 p.m.
A woman at Equinox Gym left her
locker unlocked when she went to the
bathroom. When she returned, she discovered that her purse, Louis Vuitton
makeup bag, BlackBerry, iPad, MetroCard, passport and debit card had
been taken.

10 BARCLAY STREET
March 19, 6:30 p.m.
A man parked his Mercedes-Benz
sedan. When he returned an hour later,
the rear window was broken and a laptop
worth $2,000 was missing from the back
seat.
8 SPRUCE STREET
March 17, 9:45 p.m.
A 19-year-old woman said that a 21year-old man she knew from work visited her 30th-floor apartment with his
friends at 10 p.m. Sunday and stayed
until 4 a.m. Monday. When the woman’s
parents returned that evening, her mother discovered that one of her drawers had
been tampered with, and that a blue topaz ring, a Venetian glass necklace,
white stone earrings and 22 other pieces
of jewelry, plus a $100 American
Express gift card, were gone. Police arrested Jamar Allah, 21, and Lemon
Abdoulie, 19, for allegedly stealing the
jewelry, worth a total of $36,500. The
other alleged thieves were still at large.

345 BROADWAY
March 16, 1:25 a.m.
A man used a pipe to smash the glass
door and break into the Prime Essentials
drugstore, where he stole $540 from the
cash registers.

77 WARREN STREET
March 15, 11 p.m.
A man left his jacket unattended at
the Warren 77 NYC Bar. The next morning, when he awoke in the Cosmopolitan
Hotel where he was staying, he discovered that his BlackBerry and credit and
debit cards were missing from the jacket
pocket. Unauthorized charges totaling
about $1,000 had been made on his card.
59 PEARL STREET
March 15, 6 p.m.
A thief stole a wallet from a woman’s
handbag, which she left unattended on

the bar at Ulysses NYC when she went
to the bathroom. The wallet contained
IDs, a driver’s license and credit and
debit cards.

SIXTH AVENUE & WEST BROADWAY
March 12, 11:15 p.m.
A thief snatched a woman’s cell
phone from her hand on the A train and
attempted to flee at the Canal Street station. The victim and a bystander chased
the man before he was caught by police.
Wamisho Dimore, 17, was arrested.
47 BROADWAY
March 7, 11 p.m.
A woman attending a party at China
Chalet went to retrieve her coat, iPad and
MacBook Pro from the coat check to
find they were missing. The Norma
Kamali coat and the iPad were worth
$800 each and the computer was valued
at $1,200.

160 FRONT STREET
March 6, 4 p.m.
A thief made off with two spools of
fiber optic cable worth $4,300 from the
roof of an apartment building.
127 PEARL STREET
March 4, 6:45 p.m.
Someone swiped a 30-year-old man’s
backpack containing a Lenovo laptop,
worth $1,800, and a passport from the
Killarney Rose bar. The man said that he
placed the backpack on the floor and
walked away. When he returned 20 minutes later, it was gone.
76 CHAMBERS STREET
March 3, 2:15 p.m.
A woman’s purse was stolen from the
back of her chair at the Blue Spoon
Coffee Co. Police recovered the purse in
a garbage can outside the cafe, but the
woman’s wallet, containing $1,650 and
two credit cards, was missing.
111 JOHN STREET
March 2, 11:30 p.m.
Three men attacked a 19-year-old 7Eleven employee, slapping his face and
the back of his head while demanding his
wallet. The perps fled empty-handed.
The victim suffered a laceration on his
eye, requiring stitches. Minutes later at
Pine and William streets, the three perpetrators allegedly punched a 22-year-old
man in the face, displayed a knife and
snatched his wallet. Arthur Rowland, 21,
and Rosendo Mendoza, 24, were charged
with robbery in the first degree and
attempted robbery in the second degree.
The other assailant got away.

5 DEY STREET
March 1, 2 p.m.
Someone took a Brazilian tourist’s
bag that she had left on the back of her
chair in Aroma Cafe. The bag contained
$1,000 and a camera valued at $500.

In CB1 Hot Seat Over Late-Night Partying

THE TRIBECA TRIB APRIL 2014

11

Spring Studios Rep Promises No Repeat of Agreement-Breaking Incident

BY NATHALIE RUBENS
With a hand over his heart and a
humble look in his eye, David Hemphill,
manager of the neighborhood newcomer
Spring Studios, stood apologetically last
month before Community Board 1 members and neighbors. He was there to
assure them that the behemoth 150,000square-foot operation at 50 Varick will
indeed behave.
The U.K.-based production studio
and advertising agency had been in an
awkward position following a Super
Bowl party fiasco that pumped loud
music onto the streets until 2:30 a.m. in
early February. The event caused some
on the board to reconsider its advisory
approval of a liquor license, still pending
before the State Liquor Authority.
Residents living near the facility also
had complained of black town cars
blocking traffic lanes, bright lights emanating from the building and loud delivery loading on Varick Street.
All this flew in the face of a long list
of stringent stipulations agreed upon by
both Spring Studios and CB1 representatives last spring. “We certainly didn’t do
that for our health, and have every intention of following everything to the letter,” Hemphill told CB1’s Tribeca
Committee. Busy with Fashion Week last
month, Hemphill was not at the February
committee meeting when a Spring Studios representative was reprimanded for
the late-night incident.
While some members remained
peeved at Hemphill’s noted absence at
the February meeting, the CB1 committee overall appeared to take the manager

at his word, and agreed not to amend or
rescind its support of the license. No
more events, third-party or private, are
scheduled to take place until construction
of the studios is finished, in July at the
earliest, according to Hemphill.
Not everyone in the room was reassured by Hemphill’s promises that a liquor license for Spring Studios—and
therefore full control of what goes on
there—would mean neighborhood
peace.
“Upon completion, all bets are off
and I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Paul Barenholtz, a resident
whose apartment looks out at Spring

With Liquor License at Risk, Megu Says
Promoter-Run Parties Will Be No More

BY AMANDA WOODS
Four months before their liquor
license would be up for renewal, two representatives of the 100-seat Japanese
restaurant Megu New York, at 62
Thomas St., stood before Community
Board 1’s Tribeca Committee and
received a stern warning. Stop the latenight drinking—beyond the allowable
hours of their liquor license—or risk losing their license altogether.
Two frustrated neighbors told the
committee at their March meeting that
drunken and noisy crowds congregate
outside Megu and on surrounding
blocks, depriving the residents of sleep.
John Willenbecher, who lives half a
block away on West Broadway, said that
he once went outside at 3:30 a.m. to confront Megu’s bouncer about the problem.
Willenbecher told of a confrontation
with the bouncer. “I said this was a residential street where many people live
and, at this hour, sleep. He shoved me
and told me, ‘If you don’t like it, move to

CARL GLASSMAN

another neighborhood.’ As I left, I saw
someone throwing up on a fire hydrant.”
Megu’s liquor license only allows the
establishment to serve alcohol until
11:30 p.m. on Sunday through Thursday,
and until midnight on Friday and Saturday. Peter Braus, the chair of the
Tribeca committee, asked the Megu representatives if they serve alcohol past
those hours.
“Serving alcohol is up to midnight,
but people tend to stay a little longer,”
said one of two Megu representatives, a
woman, who stood before the committee
with their lawyer Frank Palillo. (The
restaurant representatives did not give
their names to the committee and
declined to give them to reporters.)
“So they stay until three in the morning with no alcohol?” Braus countered.
“That seems difficult to believe. Is
[Willenbecher] just wrong? That these
parties are not going till that late?”
The woman hesitated, then responded, “As far as we are concerned, we are

Studios from across the Holland Tunnel
rotary.
Others had come to support Spring
Studios. One of them was Edgar Pereira
of the Chinese-American Planning
Council, located on St. John’s Lane, the
alley directly behind Spring. Pereira
noted that the alley used to be dirty and
poorly lit. “Since they’ve moved in,
we’ve seen a 180-degree turnaround,”
Pereira said. He thanked Spring Studios
for sending crews to clean up the alley,
donating planters and providing summer
internship opportunities for their youth.
Hemphill tried to assure the committee that once construction is completed,

noise from deliveries will no longer be a
problem and traffic during events will be
controlled by paid off-duty uniformed
police. In the meantime, he said, they
have been dimming the lights in the huge
windows.
Every event that has been part of
Spring Studios’ “soft opening” has been
a learning experience, he said, with the
late-night Super Bowl party apparently
the most instructive of them all. “It was a
mistake and something that will not be
repeated again.”
“We appreciate that,” replied
Committee Chair Peter Braus. “And trust
it won’t.”

Two representatives from Megu, right, did
not identify themselves and said little during their appearance before CB1.

not serving alcohol.”
With his clients struggling to respond
to Braus’s disbelieving follow-up questions, Palillo asked to temporarily excuse
himself and his clients while they discussed the matter in the hallway.
When they returned, Palillo explained that private parties, run by promoters who rent the space, have indeed
been held at Megu. At these events—

unaffiliated with the restaurant itself—
alcohol may have been served, he noted.
“But we will stop that,” Palillo
added. “It’s a problem for the neighbors,
and we do not want to be a problem to
the neighbors.”

Bomb Shield for Stock Exchange Called ‘Desecration’

12

APRIL 2014 THE TRIBECA TRIB

BY CARL GLASSMAN
A new fortress-like steel entry to the
New York Stock Exchange may be immune to explosives, but not the verbal
blasting it got last month from
Community Board 1.
Stainless steel plates are now installed above the Exchange’s entrance at
18 Broad Street. And on each side of the
entrance to the 1903 landmark building
are heavy steel mechanisms used to raise
and lower a 4,000-pound “security shutter” that only becomes visible when in
use.
Put in place a year ago with a temporary permit from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the apparatus replaced a non-historic transom and grate
that had been installed following the
1982 bombing by terrorists seeking
Puerto Rican independence.
Eugene Travers, a lawyer representing the Exchange, told the committee
that his client wants to make the new
installation permanent. But the committee, which is advisory to the ultimate
decider, the Landmarks Preservation
Commission, told Travers that the Exchange should find another solution.
“You need to make it [historically]
contextual and then figure out a way to
incorporate your security procedures into
what it should be,” said committee member Marc Ameruso.
The New York Stock Exchange “is
an incredibly important feature of our

CARL GLASSMAN

The entrance to 18 Broad Street was rebuilt to accommodate a two-ton security barrier
that can be lowered in the event of an attack. The shutter was installed a year ago.

city and this is just a desecration,” said
Corie Sharples, another committee member and principal in the firm of SHoP
Architects.
Sharples insisted that the apparatus
could be set further back into the building and made less visible. “It makes no
difference if someone is trying to get in
this building with a bomb,” he said. “It
doesn’t matter if they’re six inches further into the perimeter, it really doesn’t. I
mean, don’t tell me that it matters.”
“You’re looking at a non-historic
entry that’s being replaced with an equal-

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ly non-historic security system,” Travers
argued.
The committee voted to reject the
application and recommended that the
Exchange renew its temporary permit
while it looks for another way to secure
the entrance. The Landmarks Commission was scheduled to consider the
installation on April 1.
“The problem is that this type of
device has to be at the exterior skin of the
building for it to be effective,” said the
project’s architect, Curtis Taufman of
American Defense Systems, Inc., in a

telephone interview with the Trib. “If I
could have done it differently, I would
have.” Taufman said he would have
attended the meeting, but was not asked.
“Even if we desired to pull it inside,
a lot of modification would have had to
be done to the building and to the lobby
to get the same type of reinforcement,”
he added, saying that many alternatives
had been considered.
“As an architect, I am very, very sensitive to maintaining our landmarks, but
I’d been taught in school that our first
concerns were life and safety.”
Taufman said plans for the security
shutter last year had only Buildings
Department approval and was days away
from installation when the Landmarks
Commission discovered it had been
overlooked in the approval process.
“A lot of effort went into this under
the impression that it was approved,” he
said.
CB1’s Landmarks Committee was
unhappy that it was a lawyer and not the
architect, as customary, who presented
the plans to them. Travers was unable to
answer technical and aesthetic questions
about the project, and committee members said it was difficult to understand
the Stock Exchange’s position without
that expertise.
“The New York Stock Exchange,
they govern themselves differently,” the
architect said. “I think they just didn’t
want to talk that much about the details.”

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14
APRIL 2014 THE TRIBECA TRIB

Atheists Resume Fight Over September 11 ‘Cross’
15

THE TRIBECA TRIB APRIL 2014

BY AMANDA WOODS
Atheists were back in federal court
last month, hoping to reverse a lower
court’s decision to allow the National
September 11 Museum to display the
World Trade Center “cross” when it
opens in May.
The group, American Atheists, tried
to convince a three-judge panel that the
two crossed steel beams, found in the
Trade Center debris, is a religious relic
that violates the First Amendment right
to church-state separation.
“It is dangerous for this to be in a
government-backed display,” said Edwin
Kagin, the attorney for the atheists. “This
is about an endorsement of Christianity.”
Almost immediately after the 17foot-high object was discovered, it became a shrine of sorts to many who
labored in the rubble after 9/11. Later it
was moved to nearby St. Peter’s Roman
Catholic Church. In 2011, to the dismay
of atheist groups, the cross was moved
again, this time to the museum, which is
owned by a foundation and supported by
both public funds and private donations.
That move set off the suit against the
site’s owner, the Port Authority, and
against the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. The plaintiffs claimed
that the cross must either be removed or
other religious groups—including themselves—be given symbolic recognition.
Last year, U.S. District Judge
Deborah A. Batts sided with the defen-

PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

Above: Demonstrators in Foley Square before a hearing last month. Left: The “cross,”
shown in place last fall in the museum.

dants, saying that the cross serves a historical purpose. She noted in her opinion
that many rescue and recovery workers
turned to the cross for comfort and as a
way to cope with the devastation they
witnessed. “Simply because one object,
which is one component of a secular
exhibition is religious does not engender

endorsement,” she wrote.
During the U.S. Court of Appeals
hearing on March 6, Gerard E. Lynch,
one of three judges who listened to the
arguments, seemed to echo Batts’s opinion, noting that religious expression was
part of the story of Sept. 11.
“Whether or not they are being
endorsed,” the judge said, “these are
things that took place and are being
described as part of the history.”
“The overwhelming message of this
artifact—we’ll call it a cross—is that
Christianity is the predominant religion

of the United States,” argued Kagin, who
also appeared to back away from the
atheists’ call to return the cross to St.
Peter’s. Rather, he said, atheists deserve
equal treatment.
“Are you asking us to say that the
display, no matter what else they do, violates the First Amendment?” Judge
Reena Raggi asked Kagin.
“Specifically, what we need is an
object of some sort, even a plaque that
says to the world, ‘Atheists died here
too,’” Kagin replied.
“So the relief that you’re looking for
is some sort of plaque or other acknowledgement,” Raggi said. “That’s it?”
“That’s it,” Kagin replied.
The judge seemed puzzled by the
suggestion of a plaque. “If the cross is
being displayed because of its historic
significance, a plaque that had no historic significance wouldn’t seem to have
the same claim to equal treatment,”
Raggi said. “What am I missing?”
Mark H. Alcott, the attorney for the
museum said that the cross tells an
important part of the 9/11 story.
“Every other exhibit has a historic
connection to the events of September
11,” he said. “That’s our mission, to tell
that truth. There’s no plaque that had
anything to do with the history of
September 11, so they’re asking us to
transform this from a history museum to
a make-believe recital that will ease the
sensibilities of some.”

16

TRIB bits

APRIL 2014 THE TRIBECA TRIB

TRADITION. EXPRESSION. REFLECTION.

THIS
IS

Jewish Culture
Downtown
DISCUSSION

American Jews &
America’s Game
With longtime New York Times baseball
writer Murray Chass and others

Yom HaShoah
MON | APR 28 | 10 A.M. – 5:45 P.M.
Come to the Museum to remember those who were lost
and learn from those who survived.
Free Museum admission. Donations welcome.

92Y@MJH BOOK TALK
The Ambiguity of Virtue: Gertrude
Van Tijn and the Fate of Dutch Jews
With author Bernard Wasserstein

WED | APR 30 | 7 P.M.
$15, $12 members

LOWER MANHATTAN | 646.437.4202
MORE PROGRAM & EXHIBITION INFO
@ WWW.MJHNYC.ORG
Public programs are made possible through a generous gift from Mrs. Lily Safra.

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Tickets to 9/11 Museum

If you are a resident or business
owner below Canal Street, or if you
resided or owned a business in Lower
Manhattan on 9/11, you may reserve a
free ticket to preview the 9/11 Memorial
Museum from May 15 to May 20, prior
to the museum’s opening to the general
public on May 21. The previews are free,
but reservations are required and are
available on a first-come, first-served
basis. Tickets at 911memorial.org/dedication.

Parks Seek Volunteers

Two local parks are looking for volunteers. The Friends of Finn Square, a
group of neighborhood residents who
care for the one-tenth-acre garden south
of the Franklin Street uptown subway
entrance, are seeking volunteers to help
plant flowers this spring. No gardening
experience is required, although expertise is always welcome. Write to Jessica
Raimi at jraimi@earthlink.net.
The Friends of Delury Square Park,
at Gold and Fulton streets, are looking
for volunteers to work alongside Parks
Department gardeners to plant flowers,
keep the park clean, run fundraising
events and maintain the park’s website.
Email friendsofdelurypark@yahoo.com
or call 917-499-4767.

Remembering the Tutsi

Genocide survivors and members of
the Rwandese community in the tri-state
area are holding the 20th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide Against the
Tutsi in Rwanda at the Museum of
Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Pl. In addition to reflections by survivors on how
they have been able to rebuild their lives,
Edouard Kayihura, author of “Inside the
Hotel Rwanda,” will speak. The event is
Sunday, April 13, 3 to 5 p.m.

Mini Golf Opens

Pier 25’s mini golf course, complete
with two waterfalls, a fountain and gardens, will open for daily operation on
Tuesday, April 15. Games at the 18-hole
course are $5 and $4 for children 13 and
under (cash only). Information at manhattanyouth.org.

Advice on Rat Control

A free training session on how to
safely and effectively eradicate rats and
mice will take place on Thursday, April
17, from 6 to 8 p.m. at 310 Greenwich
St., 2nd floor community room. The
workshop will be led by a representative
from the city’s Division of Veterinary
and Pest Control Services. Registration
is required. Email man01@cb.nyc.gov.

Learn to Prune a Tree

If you are certified, you can become
a New York City tree pruner. The
Citizen Pruner Tree Care Course trains
New Yorkers in tree care and pruning as
well as teaching basic tree biology and
street tree identification. Upon successful completion of the 12-hour program,
participants receive a license that certifies them to prune their neighborhood
street trees. The $100 course starts
Tuesday, April 22, and meets at 51
Chambers St. To learn more and to register, visit treesny.org/citizenpruner.

Saving the Shad

The River Project, a marine science
field station at Pier 40 that studies the
Hudson River Estuary, is holding a 5K
Shad Run on Sat., April 26, to raise
money and awareness about the recent
near-disappearance of shad from the
river. The run/walk starts at 8:30 a.m. at
Pier 25 (North Moore and West streets.)
The event will be followed by talks by
experts on the subject at The River
Project’s Wetlab on Pier 40. There will
also be children’s activities, live music
and food. Details at riverprojectnyc.org.

Talks on Cybercrime

A symposium on cybercrime threats
and trends hosted by Pace University
will take place on Thursday, April 3,
from 8 to 10 a.m. The speakers include
experts from the FBI, Citi’s eCrime laboratory and the Manhattan District
Attorney’s office. The speakers will also
discuss how the public can protect themselves from cybercrime. The free event
will be held at Michael Schimmel Center
for the Arts, 3 Spruce St. Information and
reservations at pace.edu/lubin/newsevents/cybercrime-in-the-world-today.

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BY AMANDA WOODS
Howard Hughes Corp., the developer
that is proposing a controversial 50-story
building north of Pier 17, says it is also
considering putting up a second, even
taller tower about three blocks away.
The hotel and residential tower,
which can be more than 1,000 feet high,
would be built at 80 South Street.
Hughes Corp. says that project is in addition to its proposed 600-foot residential
tower that opponents insist is out of character with the surrounding Seaport
Historic District.
In a statement issued on March 26,
Hughes Corp. executive Chris Curry
confirmed the developer’s interest in the
project, saying it is “reaffirming our
belief in the future of the area by expanding our investment.”
A project at 80 South Street had been
in the works by another developer, Cord
Meyer, which has opted to sell the site
and plans to the Hughes Corp. The
Department of City Planning has approved an air rights transfer for a soaring
tower at the site, close to Imagination
Playground, Pier 15, and the historic
ships at Pier 16 as well as the mall that
Hughes Corp. is building on Pier 17.
The most recent design, by Morali
Architects, is for 1,018-foot structure.
Last month, the Seaport Working

Group, made up of Lower Manhattan
civic leaders, elected and city officials
and Hughes Corp. representatives, began
a series of discussions about the developer’s Seaport plans. Only after the
group has come to an agreement can the
Hughes Corp. finalize its development
proposal for review by the city.
Although Hughes Corp. maintains
that it is interested in going forward with
both buildings, some believe that the
developer views 80 South Street as an
alternative to their initial project (to be
built on the site of the New Market
Building), in case it got rejected.
In an email to the Trib, Borough
President Gale Brewer, a co-chair of the
working group, described the possibility
of Hughes developing 80 South Street as
“certainly interesting.”
Robert LaValva, the president of the
Seaport’s New Amsterdam Market and a
leading opponent of the Hughes Corp.’s
plans, commended the developer’s proposal for 80 South Street, saying in a
statement that “it also provides a great
opportunity” for the city to rethink the
Hughes Corp.’s proposed 50-foot tower.
Hughes Corp. has said that tower is
necessary in order to fund the restoration
of the landmark Tin Building, build a
marina and extend the East River
esplanade through the Seaport.

ver the course of its 12 days, the Tribeca
Film Festival will screen 87 featurelength films, from sober documentaries
and dramas to smart or silly comedies.
Then there are the 58 short films, some of them about
brief encounters in the real world, quite a few set in
New York, and many that are wildly experimental.
The film buff should have little trouble finding an
intriguing title or taking a chance on a subject, but
what are some best bets for the typical ticket buyer?
“Opening nights are a great place to start tackling
the festival,” said Cara Cusumano, now in her fourth
year as a festival programmer. “These are films that
we really believe in, that we think are representative
of the festival and of the high quality of work that we
would love to showcase.”
Among them are “Dior and I,” which opens the
documentary competition, “Gabriel,” a New Yorkbased narrative about a teen struggling with mental
illness, and “Time Is Illmatic,” a hip hop documentary that opens the festival and features a post-screening live performance by Nas, the revolutionary rap
artist and subject of the film.
Then there are the don’t-miss shorts, such as “For
Spacious Sky,” a tale of backwoods brothers that fes-

tival shorts programmer Sharon Badal called “one of
the best examples I’ve seen of Americana storytelling
in a long time.” Another shorts highlight Badal
picked is “Helium,” about a hospital janitor who
befriends a dying young patient. “Most phenomenal
last shot I’ve seen in forever,” Badal said. And for the
first time, there is a dedicated program of New Yorkbased documentary shorts.
Mixed in with the traditional shorts you’ll find
experimental works, many of which play with the
material quality of film itself, which is being supplanted by digital technology. Among them you will
find works by artists who have manipulated the film
stock by hand, or explored the space between frames
or experimented with the chemical process.
“Celluloid film is very fragile. It can decompose,”
said Jon Gartenberg, who programs the experimental
offerings. “To me, these are artists that are working
mostly outside the commercial mainstream, that are
very sensitive and aware of this as they make their
film.
“The films,” he adds, “are as much about the texture as they are about the content.”
Whatever your choices, you’ll want to see them
here, while you can.

TICKETS
Single ticket sales for Downtown residents begin April 13. Tickets, $17 for evening and
weekend general screenings, $9 for matinees, can be purchased online, by phone, or at
a ticket outlet. Tribeca Cinemas, 54 Varick St., is the Downtown outlet. Downtown residents get $2 off general screenings, $3 off other tickets, when bought at an outlet.
Additional ticket information, including free screenings, available at www.tribecafilm.com.

SIDESHOWS
FAMILY STREET FEST
SAT., APRIL 26, 10 AM–6 PM Eight blocks on Greenwich Street, from Hubert to Chambers, will come alive
with dancers, stilt walkers, clowns, jugglers, music and
games. Also expect plenty of food for sale and free
popcorn.

FREE DRIVE-IN AT BROOKFIELD PL.
Seating and programs begin at 6 p.m.Screenings start
at dusk, approximately 8:15 p.m.
THUR., APRIL 17: MARY POPPINS The dream nanny,
played by Julie Andrews, takes her charges on delightful adventures with her sidekick, a jack-of-all-trades
(Dick Van Dyke). Program: Disney-themed trivia contests, a spelling bee, a high-flying kite show and more.
FRI., APRIL 18, SPLASH Allen Bauer (Tom Hanks) falls
in love with a mermaid (Daryl Hannah) in this 1984
fantasy romantic comedy. Program: Performance by
Tails of Glory, dancers from the Coney Island Mermaid
Parade.
SAT., APRIL 19: NEXT GOAL WINS The film follows
the American Samoan national soccer team, which
has been called “the worst team in the world,” as they
train for the next World Cup. Program: Samoan drummers, virtual soccer drills, face-painting and more.

TALKS ON FILM
Discussions with producers, directors, writers, actors
and cinematographers are on tap for the annual
Tribeca Talk series. From Ron Howard and Kevin
Spacey to Michael Douglas and Terence Winter, a host
of creative voices will share their film wisdom in oneon-one conversations and on panels. And a four-day
“Future of Film” series will look at the interaction of art,
politics, science and technology.
Individual tickets are $30; a few of the panels are free.
Details at tribecafilm.com.
FEST 13 CONTINUES ON NEXT PAGE

FEST13

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20

APRIL 2014 THE TRIBECA TRIB
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19

NARRATIVES FO

DOCUMENTARIES

ere are some of the highlights of the international fare this year, each of them offering something
inventive, eye-opening, tragic or triumphant and, above all, transporting. For starters, consider the
strange landscape in BROKEN HILL BLUES where a group of teens have come of age in a town without a future. Their village in northern Sweden sits above a collapsing iron ore mine. Soon to be displaced, and on the precipice of adulthood, the adolescents struggle to find their footing. Meanwhile, in the suburbs of Tblisi, Georgia, a lonely young mother of two tries to hold on as she awaits the return of their father—in
another half-dozen years—from prison. When she learns that the notoriously clamped-down penal system allows
monthly visits between prisoners and spouses, a quickie wedding is proposed in BRIDES.
In BRIGHT DAYS AHEAD a recently retired, yet still married, woman acquires a lover young enough to be her
son. Sexy complications ensue as she takes dangerous chances, seemingly daring her husband to catch her in
the act. It is a French film (but, of course). Things remain cosmopolitan in THIRD PERSON (Belgium) which features three
intermingling stories, set in New York, Paris and Rome, of
romances in bloom. ZERO MOTIVATION (Israel) takes a similar
approach with three stories of young female Israeli soldiers.
But here, what is blooming is boredom at a remote army base
in the desert. How the three deal with the bureaucracy, and
one another, sets them apart from typical war film characters.
Then there is the three-chapter tale HUMAN CAPITAL from
Italy. It is about two families, one wealthy, the other struggling
middle class, whose lives become intertwined through a road
accident.
Roman Polanski offers up a singular story of obsession in
VENUS IN FUR. The film follows a theater director who struggles to cast the right leading actress for his play. No one
“JOURNEY TO THE WEST”
seems right, until one day a mysterious woman who seems a
little too right walks into the theater. The pair begins an intense collaboration that blurs the lines between the play
and reality.
From Norway comes IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE. Here, a grieving and vengeful father gets in over his
head as he tracks down the drug dealers responsible for his son’s heroin overdose. Sounds heavy, and it is, but
moments of black comedy keep things buoyant. BLACK COAL, THIN ICE, on the other hand, is pure film noir. The
thriller, set in a bleak Chinese industrial town, is the tale of a suspended small-town detective who goes it alone in
his search for a serial killer. (The film took the top prize at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.)
In I WON"T COME BACK, we meet a young Russian woman on the run from the law. But the story really takes
off when she meets a spunky orphan along the way and the pair set off on a dangerous adventure together
through several countries.
The journey is spiritual in JOURNEY TO THE WEST (France, Taiwan) as a modern-day monk, perhaps the rein-

S

mall questions can lead to big answers, or so
that seemed the plan in many of the documentary offerings this year. Here's the question that launches THE SEARCH FOR GENERAL TSO: Who was this guy and why is his
chicken so tasty? And we’re off, through small towns
and big cities across the country learning about immigration, adaption and innovation in search of the answer
to the larger question: how did Chinese food become so
American? FAMOUS NATHAN is a look at the history of
the humble hot dog. The film, directed by the grandson
of “Famous” Nathan Handwerker, is more than just an
insider look at how the sausage is made. It is a personal
and nuanced tale of family history and the immigrant
experience in New York City.
ART AND CRAFT is an exposé on a brilliant phony.
Mark Landis, a gifted and prolific painter, is an expert
forger of masterpiece works of art. His pieces, which he
has donated to museums across the country, have fooled and confounded curators for years. The film is less concerned with how
Landis does it, but why. Meanwhile, Magician James “The Amazing”
Randi focuses intently on the “how,” revealing sleight of hand secrets
in an effort to expose phony fortune-tellers and other tricksters in AN
HONEST LIAR.
What is love? Can it be measured, made, is there a mathematical
formula? Perhaps science can provide the answer. In LOVE & ENGINEERING a Bulgarian engineer and his bachelor friends conduct a
series of experiments hoping to crack the code. A few luminaries and
legends get the bio-pic treatment, including the late literary icon
Susan Sontag. REGARDING SUSAN SONTAG offers an intimate look at
the work and life of the culture critic and her relevance today. ALL

“HUMAN CAPITA

carnation of an early Buddhist traveler, slowly, meditatively wan
present. A young Hindu aspires to a life of devotion in VARA: A
distracted by worldly obstacles, such as her forbidden romanc
Meanwhile, in Caracas a young boy’s sudden obsession wi
ried that the child might be gay in the tender and heartbreaking
her troublemaking son to Mexico City in GUEROS. There, he an
university studies aside (the film is set during the 1999 student
endary musician. Finally, there is THE KIDNAPPING OF MICHEL
accounting of the brief, real-life disappearance of the French n
plot involves a ridiculous hostage scenario in which the author,
hand over his captors.

“LOVE & ENGINEERING”
ABOUT ANN: GOVERNOR RICHARDS OF THE LONE STAR recalls the career of the
witty and no-nonsense liberal Texas governor, through interviews with those who
knew her best and behind-the-scenes battle stories. (The first female leader of the
state, she was ultimately defeated by a pair of good old boys named Karl Rove and
George W. Bush.) The work of Bob Weir is well outside the political world but
ensconced in the rock 'n roll firmament. Weir was a founding member of the Grateful
Dead. THE OTHER ONE: THE LONG, STRANGE TRIP OF BOB WEIR focuses on the life
and work of the rhythm guitarist and singer who shared the spotlight for years with
Jerry Garcia.
You might not recognize Vincent Furnier without his make-up. But there was a
time during the 1970s when the pioneering shock rocker dominated the dial. He
comes in for his close-up in SUPER DUPER ALICE COOPER. Trumpeter Terry Clark is
a jazz legend who mentored many, such as Miles Davis and Quincy Jones. In KEEP

T

THE TRIBECA TRIB APRIL 2014

OREIGN…

AL”

nders the streets of Marseille focusing only on being
A BLESSING (Bhutan). But unlike the Buddhist, she is
ce with a village boy.
ith straightening his curly hair has his mother worg coming-of-age tale BAD HAIR. A mother sends
nd his equally troublesome brother, who has set his
t strikes), wander the streets in search of a legL HOUELLEBECQ from France. It purports to be an
novelist but is clearly a prank and self-parody as the
r, who plays himself, never seems to lose the upper

21

AND DOMESTIC

he dialects are recognizable and the
backdrops familiar
but the following,
which are just some of the
many domestic narrative feature offerings at the festival
this year, still surprise by
showing a new angle on life in
America. Take social media
and Millennials, for example.
The 20-something friends in
ABOUT ALEX have kept in
touch since college through
social media and such, but
how well have they really communicated? Not well, it turns
“ABOUT ALEX”
out, as things left bottled up,
unrequited and untexted between them explode during a boozy and raw weekend reunion in real life. A chef’s shortcomings are shown to the world when his angry rant against a critic goes viral, making him a talented but unemployable cook in CHEF. How will he get his mojo back? With a food truck and a road trip, of course.
JUST BEFORE I GO is the tale of a down-on-his-luck dude who has decided to end his life. But first, he has to
return to his hometown to make a few things right. The clumsy quest, featuring a zany cast of characters, is lighter
than it sounds. In GABRIEL, a troubled teenager goes off his meds and in search of his first love, convinced that finding her would make him whole again. FIVE STAR is the story of another troubled young man, the son of a slain gang
member, who is taken underwing by a streetwise survivor. Set in East New York, the film is part documentary, part fiction. Similarly, BELOW DREAMS is shot documentary style with fictional flourishes. The film offers a glimpse into the
lives of three young people whose dreams seemed doomed by the harsh economic realities of New Orleans. EVERY
SECRET THING takes us to the sinister suburbs. Here, we find a pair of young women returning from prison to the
community that has not forgotten that as young girls the pair were convicted of stealing a baby off a front porch.
Soon after, another child goes missing and the mystery deepens in the community as the suspicion spreads.
The search is on for a long-lost rock star in LUCKY THEM, as a veteran rock journalist is given one last chance to
redeem a career she has so far squandered by being a partying scenester. In MATCH, a renowned but reclusive
Juilliard dance instructor (Patrick Stewart) reluctantly grants an interview for a student’s dissertation. He is soon sorry
as the research is a ruse, the questions are personal and the truth is uncomfortable. Can he continue to dance
around the truth?

ON KEEPIN' ON we catch up with the 89-year-old who, though in deteriorating
health, is determined to teach and inspire one last student. Meanwhile, BALLET 422
offers a behind-the-curtain peek at the New York City Ballet as choreographer
Justin Peck creates a new original piece. The fly on the wall film follows the creative
process from conception to premiere. DIOR AND I (DIOR ET MOI) offers a
similar rare view, this time into the fashion world, but by offering a backstage look
into the creation of a new collection, the first by haute couture artistic director
Raf Simons.
We step into the ring in MARAVILLA, which bobs and weaves with Argentinian
boxer Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez as he trains to reclaim the title of middleweight
champion. The film also steps outside the ring to fill in the life story of the once pen-

niless amateur turned champion and to reveal the political machinations behind the
boxing profession. What really happened during the 1986 Tour de France is more riveting than you might remember. Five-time tour winner Bernard Hinault “The Badger”
was supposed to help his friend and teammate Greg LeMond secure his first victory
but instead battled the young American for the duration of the tour. The race and the
rivalry are recounted in SLAYING THE BADGER.
Documentary filmmaker Matthew VanDyke set off on a motorcycle in 2007 to see
and film the Arab world. POINT AND SHOOT is the remarkable true story of what happened when VanDyke traded his camera for a gun and joined the Libyan rebel army in
its fight against Gaddafi. THE NEWBURGH STING uses footage gathered from hidden
cameras to tell the story of a thwarted bomb plot. Homegrown terrorists had planned
to bomb two Jewish centers in the Bronx in 2009, but were instead led
into a trap by their “leader,” who was a government informant.
Meanwhile, SILENCED is an eye-opening look at the dark side of
national security. It introduces a group of whistleblowers who dared
question the government’s reach and authority and suffered the consequences. Then there is 1971, the true story of a group of activists who
plotted a break-in of an FBI office to leak documents that would expose
illegal surveillance of American anti-war activists. The plotters reveal
themselves and share their story while the film raises questions surrounding security leaks in activism today. THIS TIME NEXT YEAR looks in on
Long Beach Island, NJ, which was laid low by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
The film captures a year in the life of the community, from the struggles
of individual families to rebuild to the wider political issues that slowed
the process.
TRUE SON turns a lens on Stockton, Calif., a disaster of a city riddled
with crime and financial difficulties that rival Detroit. But it is a story of
optimism as one young man, 22-year-old Michael Stockton, makes a run
for City Council on a promise to reinvent his hometown. The question is,
can he really?
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“DIOR AND I”

FEST13

APRIL 2014 THE TRIBECA TRIB
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

he list of short film offerings in the festival this year is
long. Can't catch them all? Try these true stories, tall
tales and small wonders. Conservation has rarely
seemed as cinematic as it does in DUKE AND THE
BUFFALO, a documentary short on a Colorado crew
that herds the endangered wild bison once a year. The film features
epic western ranges, rugged ranchers on horseback and 2,000
wild buffalo rumbling across the screen. IN GUNS WE TRUST also
has a flavor of the Wild West, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no nostalgia piece. The documentary looks at the citizens of a small town in Georgia where by
law every head of household is required to own a gun. The law
went on the books in 1982. Unspeakable violence gets a voice in
LIFE AFTER MANSON with a Manson family member speaking out
40 years after the notorious murders.
POUR RETOURNER, a narrative short from Canada, gives us the
story of a gifted prison chef who is returned to a society that does
not want him back. LOVE IN THE TIME OF MARCH MADNESS is an
animated but true-life tale of a tall woman (6'4" since middle
school) trying to find her place in the world. A longtime newspaperman on Cape Cod, who is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's,
makes the brave decision to take notes on his decline and report
the story out for his readers in the documentary short A PLACE
CALLED PLUTO. Meanwhile, in HUMAN VOICE, a narrative set in 1950s
Naples, Italy, an older woman played by Sophia Loren makes a final phone call
to the love of her life. 70 HESTER STREET is a documentary that looks back at a
Lower East Side address that the director and writer Casimir Nozkowski once
called home. Hardly nostalgic but certainly inventive, ONE YEAR LEASE is a
documentary about roommates who endure their lease with a cat-loving landlady. Voicemail messages tell most of the story.
Even more novel is ACETATE DIARY, an experimental short in which the film
stock is used as a writing, but still projectable, surface. THE PINK HELMET
POSSE introduces the world to Bella, Sierra and Rella, a trio of skateboarding
six-year-old girls in knee socks and tutus out to prove they can shred as well
as, or better than, the boys.

SHORTS

T

22

â&#x20AC;&#x153;RUBAIâ&#x20AC;?
A young girl takes a braver stand in RĂ&#x161;BAĂ? when she refuses her first communion and declares that sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an atheist. Masculine pride spoils a housewarming party in the narrative short STEW AND PUNCH as a lighthearted bout of armwrestling between hosts gets out of hand. In SEQUESTERED, a bank robbery is
ruined when two would-be stick-up men take exception to each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mask.
TRUST ME, I'M A LIFEGUARD ratchets up the dude humor even further as a
pair of lifeguards goof around in their Speedos in the waning days of summer.
But THE 30-YEAR-OLD BRIS is no joke, as the bride-to-be insists her boyfriend
get circumcised before they wed. And one canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t help but feel for the proud
Mexican barber in CONTRAPELO who is forced to shave the leader of a drug
cartel that has taken the lives of 150,000 people and ravaged a nation.
FEST 13 CONTINUES ON NEXT PAGE

ove is a funny thing, or so it would seem, as this
year’s comedy offerings spend a lot of time on
the topic. Characters find it and don't know
what to do with it. Others lose it; they’re not sure
where. And then there’s the guy who is willing to
resort to supernatural ends for just a taste of it. Let’s start
with LIFE PARTNERS. Paige and Sasha, who are total best
friends forever, have a pact. Straight and strait-laced Paige
will not marry until her slacker friend Sasha, who is gay, has
the same legal right. But then a charming young doctor
swoops in, Paige swoons, and the pact and their friendship
are put to the test. Meanwhile, Ethan and Sophie are this
close to abandoning their crumbling marriage in THE ONE I
LOVE. The couple (Elizabeth Moss, Mark Duplass) decides to
give their relationship one last chance by cozying up together at a country retreat. Usually, this is the point in the plot
where things get complicated. But in this subversive romantic comedy, this is the point where things get weird.
Meanwhile, secluded in a cabin upstate, screenwriting
friends are trying to bang out a quick story when they are
paid a visit by a desperate sibling (Marisa Tomei) in LOITERING WITH INTENT. Things, of course, do not go according to
script. What does go as well as you might expect is THE
BACHELOR WEEKEND. Here, a foppish Irish groom-to-be reluctantly agrees to
his best man’s plan to spend a bachelors’ weekend camping in the woods. He
and his delicate friends already seem overmatched by the great outdoors. But
things get far worse when the bride’s brother, an uncouth and uninvited bully,
arrives. The situation is more sophisticated in 5 TO 7, a comedy of manners
(with Glenn Close and Frank Langella) about an aspiring novelist who is having
an affair with the wife of a French diplomat. Too sophisticated for your taste?
Try INTRAMURAL, a sendup of inspirational sports movies featuring over-the-top
motivational montages and other tired tropes to tell the story of a fifth-year senior who is trying to put the team back together for one last game. As the film’s
tagline suggests, it is “the epic sports movie…for the guys who don’t deserve
one.” LAND HO! is more on the mature side. Here, we travel along with a pair of

23

COMEDIES

THE TRIBECA TRIB APRIL 2014

“THE BACHELOR WEEKEND”
70-somethings, former brothers-in-law, as they tour Iceland. Their acid tongues,
unexpected diversions and odd chemistry make the journey more satisfying
than your typical road trip flick. MURDER OF A CAT sort of puts it out there right
in the title. It's a quirky crime procedural, featuring a charming oddball (Greg
Kinnear) who sets out to find the culprit behind his beloved cat’s death. Along
the way he finds clues to his pet’s secret double life and, just maybe, love. Otto
Wall should be so lucky. In GOODBYE TO ALL THAT the poor guy is blindsided
by a divorce, disconnected from his daughter and clueless about how to restart
his life, especially dating.
Finally, not for everyone’s taste, is SUMMER OF BLOOD, which also features
a sad sack who is unlucky in love until one day he is bitten by a vampire. Go
ahead, scoff. But it works. The vampire life suits him. His confidence is restored.
There is only the messy matter of maintaining it. Guess how.

Our fish comes from South America, California, New Zealand,
Canada and Norway—and some special fish from Japan.
“Tokyo Bay looks like most other sushi dens in the city,
but the fish is better. The sushi and sashimi options
are extensive...and the rolls are creative.” — Metro NY

Party Trays of sushi, sashimi & special rolls available for large or small events.

BY JULIET HINDELL
Once a month some 20 people, mostly women and mostly from Downtown,
gather for breakfast in the back-room of
Tribeca’s Sarabeth’s to cross-cultivate
their businesses and boost their entrepreneurial spirits.
It’s called The Grid, a growing networking group of small business owners—an architect, landscape designer,
interior decorator and photographer, to
name a few—who mine contacts and
actually make some sales.
The group has far outgrown its
beginnings of just a year ago, when the
first few members—many of whom
knew each other through their kids—
would meet in living rooms and end up
talking about…their kids.
“At the first meetings we used to
introduce ourselves and say, ‘I have two
daughters and where they went to
school,’” said Amy Bergman Bonomi, a
real estate agent and co-founder of the
group. “Then, after a few meetings, we
moved away from the kids and it became
all about business.”
The sessions follow a set format with
each member giving a brief introduction
about their work, a review of referrals
that came through the group and an indepth presentation by one member about
their business. A file stuffed with business cards is passed around the table.
At a recent meeting, members shared
a rapid-fire list of referrals. Astrid

CARL GLASSMAN

Michelle Gutierrez, a mediator and Grid member, talks to the group about her work.

Herbette, a portrait photographer, had
referred landscape designer and FiDi resident Karine Duteuil for the renovation
of P.S. 234’s yard (she won the job). She
also told food photographer Frances
Janice about some website contacts.
Yasmine Karrenberg, a floral designer,
had put Julie Pitman in touch with a
fashion design company that needed a
graphic designer. The list went on.
Members pay $20 for each meeting
but no other fee. To create a non-competitive environment, the group has a
one-seat-per-profession rule. That is one
of the reasons that The Grid has what co-

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founder Loretta Lester calls a “sense of
warmth.”
“We want everyone to feel a personal commitment to the group, a sense of
solidarity,” she said.
Graham Short, a contractor and so far
the group’s only man, admitted that, at
first, he dismissed the group as “a knitting circle for all the housewives of
Tribeca.” He has reason to eat his words.
“Right now all the work I’m doing is
through The Grid,” he said. One of the
projects, the renovating of a building
lobby on 22nd Street, includes four other
Grid members.

Duteuil said that in addition to the
work her landscape design business has
gotten as a result of The Grid, she appreciates the business tips and camaraderie.
“It’s reassuring to meet people who
are all in the same boat,” she said. “We
have the same struggles and we support
each other.”
Michelle Gutierrez, a professional
mediator, agreed. “Other networking
groups I’ve joined end up being social
clubs,” she said. “But that’s unproductive.”
Bonomi laughed. “We try to keep to
the schedule as everyone has to get back
to work after the meeting.”
Most don’t have far to go, as the
majority live and work below Canal
Street. Liz Kaplanski, who opened Paradigm Kids preschool in the Financial
District a few months ago, feels the
neighborhood connection is part of the
group’s success.
“We have so many cross-references
from being Downtown, we run into each
other a lot around the neighborhood,”
she said. “Lots of our kids go to school
together and I think that makes it a
stronger network.”
As the group broke up, the talk was
of website redesigns, locations for popup stores and the next meeting’s presenter. Then it was back to the cold, hard
work of running a business.
For information on The Grid, email
information@thegridnetwork.org.

26

APRIL 2014 THE TRIBECA TRIB

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For information, please contact admissions@themontessori.org

Life In a Skyscraper Tour the
museum exhibit, “Sky High” about
high-rise apartment buildings and
learn about living in a skyscraper.
Kids then create their own model
residential building. Ages 5–9. Sat,
4/5, 10:30 am. $5. Skyscraper
Museum, 39 Battery Pl., skyscraper.org.

STORIES &
POETRY

T

g

he popular PBS kids’ television show “Jim Henson’s Sid the
Science Kid… Live!” comes to life on the stage with Sid, May,
Gabriela and Gerald. With the help of their teacher Susie, the puppets—and the audience—learn about the world around them through activities, music, problem-solving and humor. For all ages. Saturday, April 5,
1:30 p.m. $25. Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers St. Tickets
at tribecapac.org.

g Sky High Scavenger Hunt Tour
the Sky High exhibit about luxury
high-rise apartment buildings, then
go on a scavenger hunt in the museum for facts
about skyscrapers, using photos, videos and
text for clues. Afterwards, create a postcard with
illustrations of skyscrapers. Sat, 4/19, 10:30
am. $5. Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Pl.,
skyscraper.org.
g

Puppet-Making Hear Native American stories about springtime, then learn to make finger
puppets using a traditional Native American
technique. Sat, 4/26, 1-2:20 pm. Free.
National Museum of the American Indian,
Resource Center, 2nd floor, 1 Bowling Green,
nmai.si.edu.
g

Thunderbird Social Learn traditional Native
American dances and chants with the
Thunderbird Indian Singers and Dancers, the
Heyna Second Son Singers and the Silvercloud
Indian Singers. Sat, 4/12, 7 pm. Free. National
Museum of the American Indian, 1 Bowling
Green, nmai.si.edu.

FILM
g

Native American Kids’ Films Five short animated and live-action films that look at the
daily lives and traditions of Native American
peoples from Canada, the United States and
Bolivia. Daily, 10:30 & 11:45 am. Free.

ShirLaLa’s Passover Celebration Shira Kline
and friends tell the story of the Exodus through
song. She recounts the tale using fun kids’
songs about the journey across the Sea of
Reeds to the Land of Milk and Honey. There will
also be arts and crafts projects and familyfriendly tours of the museum. Ages 3–10. Sun,
4/13, 2 pm. $10; $7 10 and under. Museum
of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Pl., mjhnyc.org.

SPECIAL PROGRAMS
g Qing Ming Family Festival Learn about the
history of the Qing Ming festival, play traditional Chinese games and celebrate the arrival of